This morning I woke up at 5:30am.

It’s Monday.

Believe it or not, it wasn’t miserable. I woke up with a sense of purpose and with a joy to write. I chose to wake up.

I hear things like this all the time…
“I’m not a morning person”
“A case of the Mondays”
“I’m always tired on Mondays”
“Mondays are hard”

I beg to differ.

I think the enemy has conquered some ridiculous ground here on our Mondays, our first days, our first fruits, our MOST RESTED days!

We wake up and feel tired, and it’s a valid exhaustion, but maybe it isn’t. What if you’re not actually tired? Have you ever thought about the validity of your tiredness, whether it’s a physical tiredness or a spiritual tiredness?

What if it’s dread? Unwillingness manifesting itself as exhaustion? What if the problem with our Mondays is that we’ve given the enemy permission to control our emotions and to take over our thoughts with every discouraging lie he can muster?

Take it back. A good place to start is to ask yourself (your body, mind, heart) if you’re actually tired. Am I tired or unwilling? Have I rested? Do I need to change the way I spend my weekends?

Then ask Jesus into the conversation. Jesus, what do You think of me being super tired this morning? Is my week going to completely stink? Is my day pre-ruined? How am I really doing?

Let His truth sink into your Monday waking routine. Let His words have more influence over you than any negative expectation.

If your week was a race and you were a runner, Mondays would be the start. The enemy has managed to dupe us into thinking that the start is the hardest part. False. Ridiculous. If he can steal the joy of the start, destroy your momentum, and kill your hope for the week, then he’s all set.

Mondays are the days you should be the most ready, excited, rested. You JUST had a break. You just had a hopefully reasonable amount of time that was free. We live in a culture where we thank God for Fridays but we hate our lives on Mondays. That’s not right. If we hate what we do for 5 days a week, what kind of life is that?

Why perpetuate the lie that you are unhappy with the life you have chosen? Is it so bad that the thought of a new week makes you feel discouraged? Is it true or not? Ask yourself if you hate everything so much or if you’re just complaining out of habit. Break that habit.

How can you stir up joy on a Monday morning? What do you need to remind yourself about that makes you motivated? Are you passionate? Are you making a difference? Are you growing in character?

I think the “Monday Blues” are covering up for a much bigger issue.

Maybe if you chose a different lifestyle, you would remember your sense of purpose on Mondays, and every day. You’d be excited to open your eyes and look around, and you’d like what you see. What if instead of just the pressure of dread upon you, you also had an equal and opposing pressure of joy within you? I think it’d be enough to overcome.

I think it’s easier to blame the Monday, but the problem is a contentment issue. It should feel unnatural to a believer to join the weekly chorus of groaning and complaining.

We aren’t called to that lifestyle, brothers and sisters. In Phil 2, we are told not to complain so we can stand out from our generation. Shine like stars is the analogy used there. You’re not shining at all, cloudy Monday grumpy sky. Jesus wants to see some twinkling. He wants bright eyes again. He wants a Christmas morning from you on Mondays. Do you believe He has good things for you today?

You don’t have to be perpetually tired.

If Jesus can raise the dead, has risen from the dead, and has given US the power to RAISE THE DEAD, isn’t He able to give rest and strength to us, the living?

Get your mini-resurrection.

Rise, sleeper. The awake life, the joy of the start, the taste and color of your world are calling you up and out.
Thank God It’s Monday.